That'll be great for the four people who manage to find that wave.
Nah I’m sure the very scrupulous and honorable merchants on eBay are sure to benefit as well.
Not as if Hasbro doesn't have all this up for preorder months in advance.
Age of the Primes started preorders several weeks ago, with product not expected until between March and May. Star Optimus Prime's release date has varied from August to November, depending on source.
Distribution has been crap for years. My local area regularly skips waves, and doesn't carry many price points. Legacy Evolution wave 3 seemed to completely skip mass retail.
I have NO more sympathy for those that roll the dice on finding stuff at retail. Hasbro is doing a solid job in getting stuff to online venues, if somebody skips ordering to roll that dice? That's on them.
Distribution in canada, especially quebec has always sucked: that's basically why I switched to sourcing online. Sure, it's a rare and wonderful treat when I find something in the store: but if I want collect, I use amazon.
Honestly, while you're not really wrong, this kind of statement really pisses me off, for lack of a better phrase. I work at a brick and mortar retail establishment (auto parts, not toys sadly); I shop brick and mortar to support people like me, who are just trying to make a living and support themselves and/or their families. Distribution may be screwed, but the solution isn't "just shop online".
And, truthfully, while I do put in preorders at Pulse and BBTS for Selects and "must haves" (which are getting fewer and fewer all the time), I can count on one hand the number of waves that either me or my wife have never seen in any stores (including those "must haves").
It's not that I don't understand the frustration behind the statement as a collector, just that shopping at retail is not something that I believe should be dismissed so callously.
I still buy what I can at brick and mortar. Be it places like Target and Walmart, or hobby/comic book stores. ofc sometimes I get stuff online. Sometimes I have to, but I always try to get what I can in the wild.
If nothing else hitting up a few big box stores is a good way to kill an afternoon when nothing else is happening.
If nothing else hitting up a few big box stores is a good way to kill an afternoon when nothing else is happening.
we absolutely should not be trying to further encourage the death of brick and mortar retail, even (unfortunately) giant companies like walmart and target, in favor of online shopping
There was a time I could pick up any Transformer in my collection and remember exactly what store I got it from and what else I did during that shopping trip.
It doesn't feel the same when the answer is just "eBay."
It doesn't feel the same when the answer is just "eBay."
And that's just it; everyone's situation is different. Maybe online is the only option for some, and if so, I don't blame anyone for using it. But I feel like, as a general rule, it should be one option to complement brick and mortar, not a replacement.
More options are always better and I really don’t want brick and mortar shopping to be phased out for a variety of reasons.
I'd prefer to shop at my local stores... if it were an acceptable option. I'd like to support my local stores, and I much prefer to actually see what I'm buying so I can ensure I get a good copy. I absolutely hate it when I receive a figure I've been looking forward to, and then discover it has something like botched face paint.
Sadly, I started transitioning to online ordering back during T30. It was just getting too difficult to track down all the figures I wanted, and I got sick of having to resort to eBay for the ones I couldn't find. I'm pretty sure I had switched to fully-online shopping by the time Covid hit. I've been working from home virtually full-time since then, so I don't make it out to stores often and have a much smaller pool of stores I can reach without going out of my way. So at this point, I can't see going back to in-store shopping, for much of anything outside food, really. It's just not worth it.
Sadly, I started transitioning to online ordering back during T30. It was just getting too difficult to track down all the figures I wanted, and I got sick of having to resort to eBay for the ones I couldn't find. I'm pretty sure I had switched to fully-online shopping by the time Covid hit. I've been working from home virtually full-time since then, so I don't make it out to stores often and have a much smaller pool of stores I can reach without going out of my way. So at this point, I can't see going back to in-store shopping, for much of anything outside food, really. It's just not worth it.
Yeah, there's still room for the traditional approach and the online approach. If only because for some contexts the former is the only really feasible option. Not even getting into the emotional side of things where it's satisfying to go out and see something you want in person -- for some situations, it's not as simple or easy or foolproof as it is for others. And definitely there's an economic component to it as well; brick-and-mortar retail brand presence is still a factor in brand longevity even now, and of course supporting non-superchain stores that also carry these is preferable (and those won't always have an online component). I've seen a few specialty stores fold (probably for the best locally given how competitive and costly those get to run), and more than a few LCSs that could have been aided by better support.
Of course I don't think Steevy was particularly unsympathetic to those concerns. I do know some people even locally who've clung to in-store purchases purely out of some romanticized notion of The Hunt, and then try to preach that to others. But then this is the sort of person whose whole personality is a fandom purity test, and I have no sympathy for them in general.
Still, these are better as options rather than vying to be the one correct or even best way to do things.
I'm similar to Exatron in this; even before Covid complicated things I was already tapping out of hunting for stuff in physical stores... And now that prices are stupid and transportation is more annoying than ever, I'm definitely happier not going back to that. I begrudgingly leave the house for work, I gladly leave the house to visit family and friends, and I purposively leave the house for groceries and such. But I'm too old to put up with traffic and people and distance to MAYBE find something I'm looking for, and/or talk myself into getting something, anything, just as a consolation if I don't find it.
Like, sure, I can definitely relate to CoffeeHorse's statement above. It really isn't the same, and I've always loved having a story behind getting each of the things I get, rather than "this was the nth order from __".
But while I fondly remember tracking a particular toy down across three stores and triumphantly spotting it in the end, now the very thought of "going to three stores" has me sighing heavily and wondering exactly how much I want this damn thing. Which is probably better in the long run.
Of course I don't think Steevy was particularly unsympathetic to those concerns. I do know some people even locally who've clung to in-store purchases purely out of some romanticized notion of The Hunt, and then try to preach that to others. But then this is the sort of person whose whole personality is a fandom purity test, and I have no sympathy for them in general.
Still, these are better as options rather than vying to be the one correct or even best way to do things.
I'm similar to Exatron in this; even before Covid complicated things I was already tapping out of hunting for stuff in physical stores... And now that prices are stupid and transportation is more annoying than ever, I'm definitely happier not going back to that. I begrudgingly leave the house for work, I gladly leave the house to visit family and friends, and I purposively leave the house for groceries and such. But I'm too old to put up with traffic and people and distance to MAYBE find something I'm looking for, and/or talk myself into getting something, anything, just as a consolation if I don't find it.
Like, sure, I can definitely relate to CoffeeHorse's statement above. It really isn't the same, and I've always loved having a story behind getting each of the things I get, rather than "this was the nth order from __".
But while I fondly remember tracking a particular toy down across three stores and triumphantly spotting it in the end, now the very thought of "going to three stores" has me sighing heavily and wondering exactly how much I want this damn thing. Which is probably better in the long run.
I'm somewhat torn here. No, I don't want to encourage the eventual demise of brick and mortar, but at the same time pretty much all we have left here is Target and Walmart. Speaking bluntly, both can ******* burn for all I care.
As a collector, I haven't relied on 'I'll find it locally' for damn near a decade now. If I want something, I put in a preorder. I'm not willing to play the game of chance.
In that regard, I think we're living in something of a golden age for collecting. If you really want something, you will have the opportunity to buy it. If you choose to gamble that you'll stumble upon it locally, then you're making a choice.
I get the arguments for brick and mortar, but I don't think we can dismiss the very legitimate complaints of distribution. Stores and companies have also made decisions regarding shelf space, distribution, and what store gets what. For many (like me), we're just not going to get exclusives because we don't live in areas where those hit shelves.
Brick and mortars are absolutely complicit in their own troubles. The quandary they find themselves in is entirely due to their decisions. Hell, Walmart can't even do online shopping right. How many issues do we still have with Walmart.com? If brick and mortar stores want to be in the conversation, they need to fix things. If they choose not to, for whatever reason, then online is going to fully take over for everything outside immediate needs.
As a collector, I haven't relied on 'I'll find it locally' for damn near a decade now. If I want something, I put in a preorder. I'm not willing to play the game of chance.
In that regard, I think we're living in something of a golden age for collecting. If you really want something, you will have the opportunity to buy it. If you choose to gamble that you'll stumble upon it locally, then you're making a choice.
I get the arguments for brick and mortar, but I don't think we can dismiss the very legitimate complaints of distribution. Stores and companies have also made decisions regarding shelf space, distribution, and what store gets what. For many (like me), we're just not going to get exclusives because we don't live in areas where those hit shelves.
Brick and mortars are absolutely complicit in their own troubles. The quandary they find themselves in is entirely due to their decisions. Hell, Walmart can't even do online shopping right. How many issues do we still have with Walmart.com? If brick and mortar stores want to be in the conversation, they need to fix things. If they choose not to, for whatever reason, then online is going to fully take over for everything outside immediate needs.
I loved the thrill of the hunt 20 years ago. Checking 2 TRU, 4 Targets and 5 Walmarts trying to find that one figure and seeing what else I might find. Now, with gas, inflation, having a family, seeing the same wave 1 over produced figures filling holes for a year where wave 3 and 4 should be, etc….its so much easier to just preorder it and be happy knowing that I’m getting the ones I want. Others if I find them in the wild are just a blessing.
Pretty much. I used to break out the bike on nice days, get a couple dozen kilometers under my belt, hit up a bunch of TRU's, zellers, walmarts.
TRU in canada lost so much buying power when the american division died. They were never great for restocking anyway, but much better about it then over now. Zellers went under, replaced by target and they didn't last two years. Walmart hasn't bothered to maintain the toy section between january and september for a decade or more. Sure it's fine if you're just walking in to get something for some kid as a gift or something, but if you're actively hunting SOMETHING you end up going hungry.
I've gotten more figures from the overstock liquidation store in the last two years than I have from whatever big box stores are still around.
TRU in canada lost so much buying power when the american division died. They were never great for restocking anyway, but much better about it then over now. Zellers went under, replaced by target and they didn't last two years. Walmart hasn't bothered to maintain the toy section between january and september for a decade or more. Sure it's fine if you're just walking in to get something for some kid as a gift or something, but if you're actively hunting SOMETHING you end up going hungry.
I've gotten more figures from the overstock liquidation store in the last two years than I have from whatever big box stores are still around.
I think where I broke was GOING broke on fuel. The trouble is, when gas was less expensive and I had a place located more centrally, even with a lower paying job I could easily pop by Target and Wal-Mart before or after work. And if I had more time I could even go to Toys R Us and see that. Nowadays, things are further away and gas is more expensive, so between the two, the hunt became nonviable. I just don't have the means financially to run all over and then come up empty handed. It takes very little driving to come up to half the cost of a figure. Or more.
I have a Toyota with the eco mode option. Saves me a fair bit on gas.
But yeah... I have a few independent comic/hobby shops around me, and a fair bit of Targets and Walmarts.
So I can get a good hunt in provided the time's there.
I donno. I'm not opposed to online retail but I rather get what I can in person and use the internet to make up the difference/pick up older figures that aren't in stores anymore.
I mean yeah Target and Walmart aren't greta companies but I'd rather not see them die and put all of those people out of work.
I'd also like them to pay those people better... but to me that's the solution, not burning down two retail giants, damned the human cost.
But yeah... I have a few independent comic/hobby shops around me, and a fair bit of Targets and Walmarts.
So I can get a good hunt in provided the time's there.
I donno. I'm not opposed to online retail but I rather get what I can in person and use the internet to make up the difference/pick up older figures that aren't in stores anymore.
I mean yeah Target and Walmart aren't greta companies but I'd rather not see them die and put all of those people out of work.
I'd also like them to pay those people better... but to me that's the solution, not burning down two retail giants, damned the human cost.
So do I, now, but that was a recent development and the car payment for it precludes any cost savings. I could almost buy a Haslab a month. I got it mostly because my older car stranded me three times in three weeks and did seven thousand in repairs doing it. I figured I might as well bite the bullet and get a new one. Turns out car costs have jumped a lot since I last did it in 2013.
At this point if I had a consistently good and well-priced online channel for entertainment and hobby stuff, I'd be getting my stuff mostly through that. (Amazon, BBTS, Pulse etc do ship here, but it's costly and will definitely add up.)
As it is I already do most of my buying from specialty stores through their own preorders, and just schedule a shopping/errand run when I'm told stuff has arrived. (This is me helping support their brick and mortar presence in general, I guess.) Mainstream retail very sparingly, but it does happen too. We're a far smaller venue than the US so distribution is less dramatically janky, but it's janky enough to make this less-physical approach more convenient in the big picture.
There's also the surrounding economics of everything else. With the toys themselves shooting up in price, that's money I can no longer spend on also-pricier-now transportation, which is absurd in this car-centric metro with historically sad public transport. And even if that weren't a factor (never happen), I'm too old and out of shape (then again, oblate spheroid is technically a shape) to be at any comfort level with schlepping across town to maybe not find anything.
As it is I already do most of my buying from specialty stores through their own preorders, and just schedule a shopping/errand run when I'm told stuff has arrived. (This is me helping support their brick and mortar presence in general, I guess.) Mainstream retail very sparingly, but it does happen too. We're a far smaller venue than the US so distribution is less dramatically janky, but it's janky enough to make this less-physical approach more convenient in the big picture.
There's also the surrounding economics of everything else. With the toys themselves shooting up in price, that's money I can no longer spend on also-pricier-now transportation, which is absurd in this car-centric metro with historically sad public transport. And even if that weren't a factor (never happen), I'm too old and out of shape (then again, oblate spheroid is technically a shape) to be at any comfort level with schlepping across town to maybe not find anything.